Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)

subsection 226

226. Porrum: i.e. leeks; hot and dry, its hotness in the third degree and its dryness in the second degree. The juice of the white lower part of the leek to be given, with the herb itself, to people who

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bleed from the mouth, and they will recover. If the tops of leeks be pounded and honey put through it, and this be put in foul wounds where there is much pus, it will help with them. The juice of this herb in warm tisane will stop coughing. If leeks be pounded and honey put through it and it be applied to the bite of a mad dog, it will help with it, and it helps with any poison. Juice of leeks drunk together with the breast milk of a woman will help with coughing. Juice of leeks with one fourth part of honey through it, if put into the nose, will help with headache. If there be pain in the ear, put one drop of the juice of leeks in the nostril farthest from the affected ear, and this will cure the pain. If leeks be eaten at the beginning of a meal, this will prevent drunkenness. When taken at the beginning of a meal, it has the laxative virtue. If eaten by women at the beginning of meals, they will have many children. If the roots of leeks be put on red coals and the fumes be allowed to the vagina, it will provoke menstruation. If the juice of leeks, that is, their roots, be applied to the nose, this will stop a flux of blood from the nose. If roots of leeks be boiled in wine and drunk, it will help with poison. If the bulb of the leek be boiled in the milk of almonds and eaten, it will induce sexual desire. There is a wild sort of the leek called chives, which is hot in the fourth degree and dry in the third degree, and it has the virtue of dissolving the cold humours, and it provokes the urine and menstruation when eaten raw. If the juice of this sort of the leek be put in the vagina, it will induce menstruation, as Ysaac says; when this herb is eaten in the morning fasting, it will generate windiness in the stomach, it hurts the nerves, it generates

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gross dry fumes that are harmful to the sight, and it causes grievous hallucinatory visions similar to nightmares.